


Jesula Bossou's Revenge

by dcjuris



Series: Being Human [16]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Human Castiel (Supernatural), M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 11:13:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19811113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dcjuris/pseuds/dcjuris
Summary: The boys' first foray back into hurting doesn't go so well. These works are not in any order at all, other than the way they come to me.)





	Jesula Bossou's Revenge

The peace doesn't last forever. They all knew it wouldn't. Still, it comes as somewhat of a shock when Sam's daily _just in case_ review of every online newspaper known to man turns up something in Memphis.

It's quickly obvious that they're dealing with a vengeful spirit. Simple. She's old though, powerful, and ridiculously angry. Rightfully, it turns out.

"Jesula Bossou was a slave in Haiti, but she was sold to a visiting plantation owner, Miles Dubois, who brought her to America." Sam skims over his laptop screen as he reaches for his coffee.

Dean grabs the empty cup away from him and holds it up to signal for the waitress.

"What happened after she came to America?" Cas asks around a mouthful of toast.

"She spent three years at the Dubois plantation as a house slave, then was injured and lost the use of her right hand. Dubois sold her to Jonathan Naples, who everyone called _Master Savage_."

"I take it things went from bad to worse." Dean winks at the waitress as she refills their cups.

"There isn't a lot of information here. Hang on." Sam frowns and starts furiously typing.

"Okay, but why is she killing people now all of the sudden? I mean, if she's got a beef against racist white dudes seems like we'd have heard of her long before this."

"Oh." Sam's eyes go wide. "Wow."

"What?"

"So get this—apparently Naples didn't allow any relationships between his slaves. The men and the women were kept apart at all times. Says here, _Bossou became pregnant in her fifth year on the Naples plantation. Naples allowed her to carry the child to term, then made Bossou watch as he—_ " Sam looks up from his laptop. "As he cut it apart and fed it to his dogs."

"Fuckin'…" Dean swallows hard. "I just puked in my mouth."

"That's horrific." Cas abandons his fork and pushes his plate of eggs away.

"He didn't stop there, though. Apparently he hired her out as a wet nurse for plantation owner's wives and whored her out to his friends. She tried to kill herself several times, but each time someone intervened. According to this she got pregnant at least three more times by Naples' friends, each resulting in Naples killing the baby. After the third child, she went mad. She doused herself in kerosene, locked the doors, and burned the house down with Naples in it."

Dean scrubs his hand down his face. "Great."

Cas cocks his head and looks between them. "What?"

"Her bones were already burned. That means she's attached to something," Sam explains.

"Yeah, but what?"

***

As it turns out, Jesula Bossou's incredibly, ridiculously, super pissed spirit is attached to a necklace she must've smuggled with her somehow like a Pulp Fiction watch. Some Indiana Jones wannabe found it with his Wal-Mart special metal detector. Cue chaos.

They catch up with her during a minor rampage through a museum. Sam and Cas keep her busy while Dean finds the necklace, douses it with lighter fluid and lights it—and half the building—on fire.

When he gets back to Sam and Cas, the scene is grizzly. Several people are wounded, including his brother, and Cas is frantically performing CPR on a young woman.

"Sam?" Dean rushes over to him, falling to his knees.

Sam groans and nods. "I'm good, I'm good. Cas—go help Cas."

Dean lingers for a second, places his hand over Sam's heart just to reassure himself. He stands and jogs over to Cas. The woman is clearly dead—necks aren't supposed to bend at that angle. But Cas is still trying. Dean lays a hand on his shoulder. "Cas… She's gone, man."

Cas shrugs him off and starts chest compressions again.

"Cas, stop." Dean's been here, done that when it comes to the desperate desire to save a life.

Cas doesn't let up.

Dean reaches down and grabs a handful of trench coat, hauls Cas up and away. "She's gone."

He wrenches himself free and glares at Dean before stomping off. Dean sighs. He doesn't know the details of Cas' latest recurring nightmare, but ever since it started last month, he's been on edge, especially when it comes to injuries. He heads back to Sam, reaches a hand down to help his brother up. "You good?"

Sam stands, rolls his shoulders and nods. "Is Cas?"

"He couldn’t save her." Dean nods his head toward the young woman on the ground. "Takin' it hard." He claps Sam on the shoulder. "C'mon. Let's get the hell outta here."

***

They're two hours into the drive back on a lonesome, dark highway. Truth be told, Dean would rather have music blaring, but Sam has a pounding headache, and Cas is definitely not in the mood. Dean glances in the rearview mirror. The ex-angel is slumped in his seat, staring blankly out the window. Dean sighs and steals a quick look at Sam. His brother is similarly slumped against the door, forehead pressed to the window, hands clenched into fists in his lap.

Dean really wanted to push through most of the trip tonight, but there's no way either of his passengers are going to make it through the better part of a thirteen plus hour drive.

"Dean?"

"Yeah, Cas?"

"Can you pull over?"

"I'm gonna find us a place to crash for the night. There's a hotel a couple exits up. I figured—"

"Now, Dean. Please." Cas presses his hand over his mouth and curls his other arm around his middle.

"Gotcha." Dean slows and steers the car to the side of the road. He barely gets her shifted into park before Cas throws open the door and stumbles out. He unclicks his seatbelt, but Sam stops him.

"I've got him."

"You sure?"

He nods. "Yeah. I need to stretch my legs."

"Okay." It's against his instincts to stay in the car, but Cas has been overly affectionate toward Sam lately, so maybe Sam's the best to handle…whatever this is. The sounds of Cas retching and Sam gagging reaches him, and yeah, Dean's not above a private smirk, okay?

There's a thud, and Sam yelling his name. So much for handling it. He gets out with a groan—goddamn mother fuckin' ghosts—and rounds the car.

Sam is struggling to hold onto Cas, who seems to be set on killing himself via hubcap. He slams his head back again and again as Sam scrambles to make him stop.

Dean drops to the ground on the other side of Cas and gets his arm behind Cas' head. "Stop! Stop it! Cas, _stop_!"

"Just…get back in the car. Go home. Leave me here. Just go." Cas shoves Dean square in the chest.

Dean digs in and stays upright. "We're not leavin' you."

"Cas, c'mon, talk to us, man," Sam pleads. "What's this about?"

"Everything!" Cas snarls. "It's about _everything_!" He wrenches himself out of their grips and shoves to his feet. He paces away from them, runs his fingers through his hair and tugs on the ends. "Useless!"

Sam stands and takes a step toward him. "You're not useless."

"I am! That woman today… When I was an angel—"

"All right, that's it!" Dean's had enough. He stands. "Yeah, you coulda saved her if you were still an angel but guess what? You're not! You're not, and you're not going to be again."

"Dean—" Sam holds up a hand.

"No! I'm sick of this pity party bullshit. You're not an angel, but you know what you _are_?" He stabs his forefinger at Cas' shoulder. "You're _alive_. You're fucking alive, Cas. And as long as you're alive, you're golden. So you're not all powerful. Well, newsflash, buddy, Sam and I have _never_ been all powerful, and somehow we've managed. Yeah, you'll lose people. That's gonna happen. And it's gonna hurt like a motherfucker when it happens, but you don't stop. You _can't_ stop. And you can't keep pulling this self-abusive _leave me behind_ bullshit. We're never gonna do that, man. We're never gonna leave you behind. And the fact that you keep asking is frankly pretty fucking insulting. So get your wingless ass in the car."

He turns and stomps off to the driver's side, leaves the two of them to work it out.

Sam opens the rear passenger door and ushers Cas in before he gets in across from Dean.

***

Dean's dead tired when he finally pulls into the motel parking lot. He grabs his duffle from the trunk and heads over to check them in.

"All I have left is a king," says the bored night desk guy, who, according to his beat up nametag, is _Devyn_.

He glares daggers at Devyn as he slides his credit card over. "Fine."

He gets those same daggers glared back at him when he opens the room door and Sam and Cas see the single bed. "This was all they had."

He doesn't wait for them to answer. He slings his bag down and strides to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door. He gets it. He really does—he truly understands Cas' struggle. But he feels like they've been balanced on the head of a pin ever since Cas became Human, and they can't keep going like this.

"Dean?" Sam knocks on the door. "Can you come out for a second?"

Dean swipes his hand over his face. He's way too tired for this, but as always, the instinct to give into Sam is stronger. He opens the door and steps out. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry," Cas says. "I'm… This is all… I don’t think I was ready to hunt. I wanted to. I'm physically strong enough, and I remember all my training but… When I was an angel, it was much easier to…" He sighs. "To justify loss. If this were last year, I'd have called this a win. We did defeat the spirit, after all. But now… And I know… I know my nightmares are just dreams. I know that. But they're also possibilities. I… I wake up and I lay there, and I know that if they'd been reality… If I lose Sam, I lose you too, Dean. I lose everything."

Sam makes a noise of protest, but Cas is probably right. As much as Dean loves Cas, he's not sure he'd have the strength to stick around without Sam. He would like to think he'd turn to Cas for comfort and try to carry on with him, but in reality he'd probably just drive off somewhere and eat a bullet.

"And I don't begrudge you that. You and Sam are soul mates. I knew that the first time I touched your soul in Hell. It's part of the reason you were able to survive there, and part of the reason Sam was able to endure. Neither of you are whole without the other, so, of course, neither of you is completely broken as long as the other is alive. When I was an angel, I knew that if you died, I could get you both into Heaven, and I could visit you there. I knew that if one of you died, I wouldn't be enough to fill the gap. But since I've become human, I've found that knowing a thing and feeling a thing are completely different. And feeling a thing…is often very…"

"Shitty?" Dean offers.

Cas nods. "Shitty."

Dean crosses to Sam, takes his hand and tugs him over to Cas. He kneels and motions for Sam to do the same.

Sam follows with a frown.

Dean slides his hands up Cas' legs and settles them on his thighs. "Listen, angel—"

"Don't call me that," Cas mutters.

"Hey, look at me." He waits until Cas makes eye contact. "You'll always be our angel, wings or not. You're still the one who dragged our asses outta Hell. That didn't change. And yeah… I can't promise you I'll take losin' Sam well. I can't promise you that, Cas. But I can promise you that I'll try. And it won't be that you're not enough, okay? Me and Sam…we love each other. Always have. But we do both love you, too."

"Wings or not," Sam adds. "We don't care about your powers, Cas. Today was still a win. I know it doesn't feel like it, but it was. Yes, Amy died and that's awful. But think how many more people _won't_ die because we stopped Jesula. We couldn't have stopped her without your help. So, like Dean said, just…stop it with asking us to leave you behind. We won't. We can't. Okay?"

Cas studies them for a moment before he swallows hard and nods. "Okay."

"Okay." Dean slaps Cas' thighs. He groans and his knees pop as he stands. He points at Sam. "I saw an all-night diner on the way in. See if they deliver, and if they don't, bribe them, and if they still won't, work your Google-fu, find somewhere who will, and then join us. You—" he points at Cas— "come get in the shower with me."

Cas looks back and forth between them, reaches out and takes Dean's hand with a soft smile. "Okay."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also a published author. If you like my writing style, check out my published works on Amazon by searching "DC Juris" - that's me. :-)


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